Melancholic historicity: lost pasts and past losses

Melancholic historicity: lost pasts and past losses

Organizers: Katherina Kinzel and Robert Vinkesteijn

Utrecht University, 29+30 October 2026

Recent reconceptualizations of historicity—most notably in the work of Walter Benjamin and related thinkers—have challenged the modern ideal of progress by foregrounding historical experiences of loss and destruction. These approaches question the assumption that history unfolds as a continuous movement in which past suffering is redeemed by future advancement. Instead of viewing the past as dead or completed, they envision the past as a site of continuous unease and questioning within the present. Forgotten, suppressed, or destroyed pasts unsettle present self-understandings and expose their complicity in the ongoing reproduction of loss.  

This conference explores the question what a “melancholic” conception of historicity that is oriented around experiences of loss, destruction and defeat looks like. What does it mean to think historically from a standpoint that refuses to forget or “accept” historical losses, that interrupts linear temporality and breaks with the perpetuation of historical violence in the present. What is the political valence of different attempts at confronting historical loss? What constitutes a philosophically fruitful attitude to lost pasts (the pasts that have been forgotten or suppressed) and past losses (past experiences of loss, injustice and defeat) that are haunting the present?

This conference brings together critical approaches to the philosophy of history, postcolonial perspectives on loss, theoretical reflections on displacement and genocide, accounts of ecological loss and destruction and psychoanalytic discussions of (historical) mourning and melancholia.

If you would like to contribute as a speaker, please send an abstract of maximum 500 words to [email protected], the deadline for abstracts is Saturday 28 February 2026. If you have further questions about the scope and topic of this conference, do not hesitate to get in touch.